The other afternoon, I went to pick up my truck keys from our firm before heading over to the remote parking 2 kms away where the trucks are kept. Our firm is on a trading estate near to a T junction where two of the roads lead to a dead end and one is the entrance road to that part of the estate. The near neighbours are a cheese factory and a building supplies firm so consequently there are lots of cars parked on all three roads belonging to the workers. The cheese factory is on one dead end road and has two loading docks, our truck company is on another dead end road and also has two docks. The building firm has it’s vans parked wherever they can load. Due to the location, all visiting trucks to the cheese factory and our firm have to reverse into the correct road from the entrance road to get onto the loading docks. This is all done at the T junction. Several times a year though, ‘the perfect storm’ will happen where three artics all meet at the T junction and all are trying to get in or out or perform various manoeuvres and just end up blocking each other in. The location is just how it is and it’s more luck than anything that prevents the perfect storm from happening more regularly.
It happened the other day. I arrived in my car as a PL plated Wolter Koops truck was trying to get out of the road leading to the cheese factory, another Dutch fridge firm was waiting in the other dead end road to reverse around the corner into the cheese factory, and one of our trucks was waiting to drive into the cheese factory road so he could reverse around the corner into the road where our firm is located. And no one could go anywhere or squeeze past due to all the parked cars. Each time I’ve seen it happen, I’ve not had the time to hang around to see how they sort themselves out or to give a hand. I just squeezed out in my car giving a ‘good luck with that’ thumbs up to my colleague in one of the trucks, thanking my lucky stars that I’m wasn’t in that situation.
So, do any of you have any war stories of having a Mexican standoff with one or more trucks, purely because of the bad location and not because the other driver(s) were refusing to move? How did you get out of it?
Ages ago used have regular run to a place near Kent only way to access it was down a narrowish country lane with passing places.
I was going along one day a woman came over way in a new Merc. We both stopped not enough room to get passed. After what seemed an age I got out said you need to reverse back a few yards into the passing place. She refused I was here 1st you shouldn’t be here you move …said can’t to far and car behind me.now.
I got in truck feet on dash sat waiting n waiting. Then she decided to basically bury her car in the hedges squeeze past could so hear the screeching of the trees on the paintwork.
Phoned work to explain incase she rang didn’t hear a thing unbelievable really
Look for Puxton Lane in Kidderminster i always get there before 7. No one will be around. Coming out i always ask if they can have someone stop cars at the top.
Happens most weeks on farm deliveries. Sometimes a tractor, sometimes another lorry, often a car.
Funniest I had was a woman in a Range Rover that I met on a country lane only just wider than the lorry. As luck would have it I had just passed one of those grassy areas just big enough for a car for her to pull into. I reversed a short distance (had a camera on the trailer so knew there was nothing behind) so she could drive onto the grassy area and then I could pass.
As I reversed she kept following. I stopped just after the pull-in but she kept driving right up to me.
After much gesticulating by both parties, I got out to explain where she should go .
Her reply was…“I cant go on there, I might get stuck!” in a Range Rover !
After a bit of explaining that if she did I could pull her out she reluctantly drove onto the grass.(This was in the height of summer with no rain for at least a fortnight).
The opposite of this was a young farm lad in a similar situation quite happily throwing his VW Polo into a plowed field to let me pass and then nonchalantly reversing back out when I’d gone by.
As you can imagine this happens to me on a daily basis as we do a lot of rural collections, i think they should bring in reversing with wing mirrors only in the car test (no looking over your left shoulder to look through the rear window) it never ceases to amaze me how many car drivers cannot reverse in a straight line and worse in a county lane with tight bends they zig zag from one hedge to the other having to move forward to correct themselves several times every manoeuvre.
Yes,we have a place where we pick up,you have to reverse all the way to the dock because there is nowhere to turn round,its dark,there are forklifts flying around,pedestrians,the full package.
One thing though,if Im not 100 % sure,I get out and have a good luck,maybe more than once,I dont care whos waiting.I need to be sure whats behind me
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